The little movie that could has spawned a little soundtrack that could, too.

The quirky "Juno," starring the relatively unknown Ellen Page in the title role, has broken out in the past couple of months, topping the $100 million mark at the U.S. box office and landing a Best Picture Oscar nomination as well as a nomination for Page as Best Actress.

The correspondingly quirky soundtrack likewise has picked up momentum, chugging all the way to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and making a name of the relatively unknown Kimya Dawson, a member of the indie act Moldy Peaches who sings on a big chunk of the compilation's songs.

Dawson is something of a real-life counterpart to Page's character: She's intelligent and offbeat, droll and provocative, and both tough and vulnerable. The soundtrack also features classic heavy hitters - The Kinks ("A Well Respected Man"), Sonic Youth (covering the Carpenters' hit "Superstar"), Mott the Hoople ("All the Young Dudes"), Buddy Holly ("Dearest") and the Velvet Underground ("I'm Sticking With You") plus better-known modern-rock acts Belle &amp; Sebastian ("Piazza, New York Catcher," "Expectations") and Cat Power ("Sea of Love"). Dawson would hardly seem to have a chance with her near-fragile voice and folk-ish numbers, but just as Page stands out from the movie's cast, Dawson stands out on the soundtrack.

It helps that the widely familiar acts all perform songs that complement her numbers - and for a collection of tracks that spans four decades by a cornucopia of artists, this soundtrack is remarkably seamless. Yet Dawson's persona pops as she innocently sings, "I'm pretty sure you have a new girlfriend" on "Tire Swing" and, "I like boys with strong convictions and convicts with perfect diction" on "So Nice So Smart." She best sums it up on the Moldy Peaches' "Anyone Else But You," a duet with her performing partner Adam Green where she sings, "We sure are cute for two ugly people/I don't see what anyone can see in anyone else but you."

At the end of the both the film and the soundtrack, it's Page and co-star Michael Cera performing "Anyone Else But You," and the actress and the singer seem almost almost interchangeable.

So if you like one, you should like the other.

Sheryl Crow rides out life's twists, turns

‘DETOURS'

■ Sheryl Crow (Interscope/

A&M

■ Rating: ★★★★

Sheryl Crow has gone through numerous life-altering events since she recorded 2005's "Wildflower," which explains the transition from that gorgeously introspective release to her new, somewhat fractured "Detours."

In the past couple of years, Crow has adopted a baby, battled breast cancer, broken up with Lance Armstrong and become more of an activist. All of these issues come into play on the aptly titled "Detours," whereas the hook-heavy "Wildflower" was more of a focused study on lonely hearts and regrets spiked by meditation and optimism.

To be fair, she does make a sonically and thematically smooth segue between the two releases: "Wildflower" ends with the sweet-sounding/anti-war/piano-based "Where Has All the Love Gone" and "Detours" starts with the sweet-sounding/anti-war/guitar-based "God Bless This Mess."

"Detours" veers off on its own path from there, however, immediately blasting into the apocalyptic "Shine Over Babylon," where Crow bellows through lines such as, "If there's a god, where is he now?"

Produced by Bill Bottrell - who worked the boards on her 1993 breakout "Tuesday Night Music Club" - "Detours" rocks and pops and goes through bluesy, folkish and jazzy inflections. It's more of an aural hodgepodge than her "Wildflower," and frankly, a little less catchy.

Still, most of the new tracks are rewarding and/or noteworthy. For instance, the cancer-themed "Make It Go Away (Radiation Song)" is disquietingly intimate as Crow sings, "I stare into some great abyss ... If only I could make some sense of this." On the flipside, "Gasoline," featuring guest guitarist Ben Harper, is a rollicking, chatty tale of a populist uprising.

Upbeat notions weave through the release, embodied in the New Age/psychedelic "Peace Be Upon Us" that incorporates Arabic lyrics; a gentle "Lullaby for Wyatt" in honor of Crow's son; an ob-la-di, ob-la-da-ish "Out of Our Heads"; and a playful/stomping "Love Is Free."

But on the subject of love's dark side, it's easy to imagine the role Crow's ex played in the staccato-versed "Diamond Ring" ("We made love all day in our little hideaway" she sings, later wondering why she didn't rate some kind of commitment), the bitterly emphatic "Now That You're Gone," and the delicate, seeking-advice-from-Mom title track that finds Crow singing, "I took all of these detours to find love, and when I did, it just faded away."

"Detours" is saddled with a few too many tracks as Crow seems determined to weigh in on the many changes she's endured lately. Yet if there's too much going on, well, life is like that.

At least Crow's life is.

Conundrum: Why doesn't America get it?

‘X'

■ Kylie Minogue (EMI)

■ Rating: ★★★★

It's puzzling how Kylie Minogue's iconic stature in Europe and her native Australia simply hasn't translated into much in the way of U.S. success.

And the mystery deepens if her new "X" doesn't catch on in America, because a good chunk of the release sounds like a facsimile of the best recent music from Gwen Stefani, Nelly Furtado, Britney Spears and numerous others active on U.S. charts.

Twenty years into her pop career, Minogue out-chameleons Madonna on "X." Europeans can feast on the standout tracks - the electro-grainy, Goldfrapp-esque "Like a Drug," the crunchy/catchy slinky single "2 Hearts," the Daft Punk-ish robotic hypno-funk "Speaker-phone" and the mesmerizing vintage-Kylie sprawling dance track "The One." Minogue is at the top of her game with all of these cuts, a crafty patchwork of contemporary sounds custom-made for her established fans on the other side of the Atlantic.

Meanwhile, backed by an army of producers, the 39-year-old Minogue returns from her 2005 battle with breast cancer ready to fight for U.S. airplay, as she swings from playful fluff like "No More Rain" and "Wow" (both of which are suitable for Radio Disney) to the rumbling, naughty "Blackout" Britney-like "Nu-di-ty," to the chunky, bleeping, ersatz Stefani "Heart Beat Rock" to the All-American hip-pop "All I See."

Minogue's girlish voice - first heard around the world two decades ago with her hit remake of "The Loco-Motion" - hasn't especially matured over the years. But she's learned to finesse it and make it work for her. Besides, she's not trying to horn in on the soul singers' turf; she has her own huge niche, and she's merely looking to expand it.